The murder of the influential right Charlie Kirk marks a decisive moment in a wave of American political violence, one who fear that some experts inflame to an already fractured country and inspire more disturbances.
“This event is horrible, alarming, but not necessarily surprising,” said Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has tracked such violence into a terrorism database since 1970.
In the first six months of the year, the United States experienced about 150 politically motivated attacks, almost double that during the same period last year, said Jensen. “I think we are in a very, very dangerous place at this time that could easily intensify in more widespread civil disturbances if we do not,” said Jensen. “This could serve absolutely as a kind of flash point that inspires more.”
Domestic terrorism experts cite a convergence of factors for greater violence in the United States: economic insecurity, anxiety to change racial and ethnic demography, and the increasingly inflammatory tone of political discourse. Traditional ideological divisions, once focused on political disagreements, have become a deeper and more personal animosity. That anger is amplified by a mixture of social networks, conspiracy theories and personal complaints.
Reuters Identified last year at least 300 cases of political violence in the United States between January 6, 2021, the attack on the Capitol and the presidential elections of 2024, marking the most significant and sustained increase in such violence since the 1970s.
“Extreme political violence is becoming increasingly the norm in our country, and Charlie Kirk's shooting is indicative of a much greater and more widespread issue: acts of violence are becoming more common, even without any ideology or clear motive,” said Jon Lewis, a researcher in the extremism program at George Washington University.
“There really is a concern about how the setback will be like this.”
Other experts who study political violence agreed. “People are reluctant to participate in violence first, but they are much more willing to participate in violence as retaliation,” said Lilliana Mason, a professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. “Nobody wants to be the one who starts it, but many people want to be able to finish it.”
Kirk, a nearby ally of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and founder of the group of conservative students Turning Point USA, headed to an outdoor crowd of approximately 3,000 at the University of Utah Valley when a shot sounded, sending him to fly from his chair and attendees who were panic.
The authorities had not yet publicly identified a suspect on Wednesday night, almost six hours after the shooting. The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, said that an unidentified “subject” had been arrested to interrogate and then released.
Kirk, 31, was a pioneer in the conservative movement and took advantage of the power of social networks to attract millions of young Americans to Trump's magic base.
“No one understood or had the heart of young people in the United States better than Charlie,” Trump said in a social media post that announced Kirk's death. The president of the House of Republican representatives, Mike Johnson, told CNN that there has been a “flood” of legislators who requested a stronger security following the murder of Kirk.
'Vicious Spiral'
Trump himself was the subject of two murder attempts last year. In one, the shooter was killed by the authorities seconds after shooting. On the other, a man was arrested with a rifle and a range near a Palm Beach Golf club where Trump was playing. His trial began this week.
In addition to them, two recent high -profile attacks of the theorists of the right -wing conspiracy this year shook government legislators and workers throughout the country. In June, a Christian nationalist murdered a democratic state legislator and her husband in Minnesota, and wounded a second Democrat. In August, an armed man obsessed with the conspiracies of COVID-19 sprinkled shots at the headquarters of the centers for disease control and prevention in Atlanta, killing a police officer.
Since January, at least 21 people have been killed in incidents of political violence, 14 of them in an attack in New Orleans for an assailant who claimed loyalty to the Daesh group at the beginning of New Year's Day.
In July, a group of at least 11 militants in black military -style clothes attacked an immigration detention center in Texas, the Department of Justice said. The group activated fireworks, “traitor” and “ice pork” painted with spray in the vehicles, and shot a police officer who responded in the neck, wounded him, while another sprinkled the detention guards, the FBI said.
Since he returned to office, Trump has reduced efforts to counteract domestic extremism, redirect resources towards the application of immigration and quote the southern border as the main security threat.
Jensen, the researcher at the University of Maryland who tracks the violence of the National Consortium for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism, said the future seems gloomy.
“This is an administration that, whether it agrees or not, has made profound changes in this country in the eight months he has been in office,” he said. “Some people love, some people hate. The people who hate him are starting to act. The people who love him will act against those who hate him, and become a vicious spiral that could lead us to something very, very bad.”
